Attorney General opens Youngstown office

YOUNGSTOWN — During his successful campaign last year for attorney general, Marc Dann said his office would have a presence in the Mahoning Valley. On Thursday, Dann, a Liberty Democrat, held a ceremonial ribbon cutting on a new office at the city-owned 20 Federal Place. About 200 people packed the third-floor lobby outside the office for the event.

The office, at the former Phar-Mor Centre, employs 38 employees, including 16 from Dann’s new statewide predatory lending task force. The other 22 are from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation’s former office in Boardman. The jobs have a combined annual salary of $1.8 million.

Dann envisions the new 21,517-square-foot office as a viable facility for years to come. The attorney general’s office signed a two-year lease with the city for the space with free rent in the first year and a payment of $2 per square foot a year in the second year. The office also will pay $1.75 per square foot annually in both years for a common space area fee.

The attorney general’s office is prohibited by state law to sign lease agreements for more than two years.